The Pinecam forum has many new features that were not present in the old forum software. Some of then are obvious (to some Pinecammers) but many of the new capabilities are not.

In this topic, we will point out some features that you may find useful. The topic will be locked so the tips do not get lost in conversations but, if you have a question about a tip, please start a new topic and let us know.

If you have discovered a feature you think other Pinecammers would benefit knowing about, send a PM with your tip to me and I'll post it here (giving you credit, of course ).

Are you interested in knowing when a reply is posted to a certain topic? You can "watch" the topic and get notifications when the topic has a new reply.

Subscribe to a Topic

You can do this two ways.

When you are reading the topic, click on "subscribe" under the topic subject.orWhen you post a reply to the topic, make sure the box next to "Notify me when a reply is posted" is marked. This is the default when replying to a topic.

If you have the option to get forum emails set to "yes", you will get a notification email whenever the topic changes. The topic will also be listed in your User Control Panel.

Unsubscribe

Tired of getting email notifications about a topic you are watching? Unsubscribe from the topic.

When you are reading the topic, just under the topic subject, click on "unsubscribe".

You will stop getting emails whenever the topic changes and the topic will no longer be listed in your User Control Panel.

Manage Your Subscribed Topics

You can see which topics you are watching and can remove several topics at the same time from your watch list.

Click on "User Control Panel" in the gray menu bar, under the banner.

Be sure you are in "Overview" and see the "Overview" links.

In the righthand box of links, click on "Manage Subscriptions"

You will see a list of Watched Forums and Watched Topics.

Indicate which topic subscriptions you want to stop watching by clicking on the box at the end of each topic line.

At the bottom of the page, click on "Unwatch marked".

You will no longer get notification emails when the topic(s) change and the topic(s) will no longer appear in your User Control Panel.

Go To the Last Reply in a Subscribed Topic

You do not have to allow emails to be sent from the forum to find which of your watched topics has a new reply. And sometimes, the forum emails get "lost" and you do not get them all.

Click on "User Control Panel" in the gray menu bar, under the banner.

Be sure you are in "Overview" and see the "Overview" links.

In the righthand box of links, click on "Manage Subscriptions"

You will see a list of Watched Topics and Watched Topics

Each topic listed has the date and Pinecammer for the last reply that was posted as well as the icon that indicates whether the topic has a new reply or not.

To read the topic, click on the icon.

This works the differently from way the link in a notification email works. It does not go to the first reply made after you last read the topic like the notification email but goes to the last reply in the topic like the forum index does.

note: If you have used the Pinecam forums for a long time, when you look at your watched topics list in your User Control Panel, you may see several pages of watched topics. When the old forum was converted to this version of the forum, all the topics you were watching in the old forum were added to your User Control Panel.

Every forum and topic has an icon preceding its title. Icons with orange indicate a forum or topic has at least one new reply that you have not read.

When you click on a form title, you will see an index list of all the topics in that forum. If you are unsure what a topic icon means, you can look at the bottom of any forum index page and see the meaning of each icon. Some icons are a combination of different icon meanings. For example, a small lock on an announcement topic icon means that you cannot add a reply to the announcement topic. A black dot on a any topic icon means that you posted in that topic.

Mark All Topics in a Forum As Read

If you have looked at all the unread topics in a forum and are not interested in all the other topics, you can change all the topic icons to "no new posts" by clicking on "Mark topics read" (above the blue bar where it says "Last Post")

Mark All Forums as Read

If you have looked at all the forums you are interested in and want to change the the forum icons to "no new posts", on the main forum index page click on "Mark forms read" (above the blue bar where it says "Last Post"). This means that all the topics in every forum will indicate no new posts.

Persistent New Posts Icons

In the previous Pinecam forum, when you logged out of the forum, all forums and topics were marked as "no new posts". This forum does not do that. When you log out of the forum, topics you have not read remain as having new posts.

This means if you log in and out during the day but only have time to read one or two topics each time, you will not lose the "new posts" icon indicators for forums/topics you have not had time to read. The only way all forums and topics are marked as read is if you click on the "Mark forums read" on the index page.

Forums are based on the concept of following a conversion. One person says something and another person replies. Therefore, the posts in a topic are in ascending date order - that is, the oldest post show first and the newer posts show last. You need to go to the end of a topic to see the latest posts.

Many social networking websites such as Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn, however, show messages in descending date order - that is, the newest message is at the top of the list and the oldest at the bottom.

If you prefer the descending post order of social networking websites, you can change the ordering of posts in this forum.

Reorder the Posts in a Topic

If you want to change the post order for a single topic, while you are reading the topic:

Scroll to the bottom of any page in the topic.

Above the quick reply is a bar with "Sort by".

Leave the default as "Post Time".

Choose the post order by clicking on the double arrow, then clicking on "Descending".

Click on "Go".

The webpage will reload and all the posts in the topic will be in descending order. However, when you log out and log in, this topic will revert to ascending post order. This option does not persist across sessions.

Reorder the Posts in All Topics

If you want all topics to be sorted in descending order whenever you visit the forum, you need to change your board preferences.

Click on "User Control Panel" in the gray menu bar, under the banner.

In the options box on the right, click on "Board preferences"

Again in the options box on the right, click on "Edit display options".

In the bottom segment of the "Edit Display Options" area, the last option is "Display post order direction:".

Click on the double arrows in order selection and click on "Descending".

Click on "Submit".

All topics will show the newest posts first. This option will persist and whenever you log out and log in of the forums, the topics will be sorted in data descending order.

Pinecam has provided Pinecammers a simplified way to upload images to include in your posts. The images are taken from your PC or Mac and stored on ImageShack, a free image hosting website. When the upload is completed, you merely copy the provided forum code text to your post.

You can, however, continue to upload your images to any website or server and use the bbCode [img]your_image_URL[/img] to show your images.

Using the Pinecam Image Upload

You must be logged into the Pinecam forums. The Pinecam image upload link is on two pages:

1. Starting a new topic or add a reply to a topic page.

2. Sending a private message via your User Control Panel page.

When you are on either of these two pages, you will see a button labeled "Upload Image" below the options section and below the file upload section. The "Submit" button is on the same line. If you click on the upload button, a new window will open in your browser that looks like:

Follow the instructions on the window to upload your image.

After the upload process completes, a new part of your window will show the image you uploaded and the forum code text for you to copy and paste into your post. If your image was very large, it was scaled to fit onto the forum pages.

You can upload as many images as you want, one at a time, in this window. However, be sure to copy and paste the forum code text into a post before you start the next upload or the forum code text will be lost. When you are finished, close the Pinecam Image Upload Window

Storing the Image in Your Private ImageShack Account

You can upload your image(s) to an existing ImageShack account. To do this, you must either:

1. Login to your ImageShack account prior to using the Pinecam Image Upload.

or

2. When you logged into ImageShack at any previous time, you chose "Keep me logged in ". If you did this, ImageShack placed a cookie in your browser and will read this cookie whenever you upload an image via the Pinecam Image Upload.

If you do not have an ImageShack account and want to store your images where you can find them later, you can create a free ImageShack account here.

Are you on a modem connection to the internet or have a very slow DSL or cable connection? Or perhaps you are with an ISP that limits your daily or monthly download volume. You can improve your experience with the Pinecam forums by choosing to not display images and things like avatars and signatures.

To do this:

Click on "User Control Panel" in the gray menu bar under the Pinecam banner.

In the left column box labeled "Options", click on Board Preferences.

In the new options, click on "Edit display options".

You will see the options to display images, flash animations, smilies, signatures, and avatars.

Click on "No" next to each display that you want to suppress.

Click on the "Submit" button.

If you turned off the display of images via your UCP, you will see a link to the image in place of the image in a post . If you click on that link, the image will open in your browser window. You will need to use your back button to return to the forum and the post where you clicked on the image link.

If you get a faster or less restrictive ISP, you can always turn these display choices back on.

Pinecam now has a bbCode tag pair that simplifies sharing a YouTube video.

Add the YouTube bbCode Tags to Your Post or Private Message

While you are composing either a new topic, a reply to a topic, or a private message, place your cursor where you want the YouTube movie to show and click on the button labeled "youtube". The beginning and ending bbCode youtube tags will appear in the text area. Each tag is delineated by square brackets. For example:

Code:

[youtube][/youtube]

Get the YouTube Video Identifier

Go to the YouTube page that has the video you want to share here on Pinecam. Look at the URL for the video. The unique YouTube identifier is all the numbers and letters after "v=" at the end of the URL. For example:

Copy the YouTube unique identifier and paste it between the Pinecam YouTube bbCode tags. If you want to type the unique identifier rather than use copy/paste, be sure to use capital and small letters just as the code appears in the URL. For example, here's a bbCode youtube tag pair ready to show a video:

Code:

[youtube]wPG7PcI67dE[/youtube]

Click on "Preview" to make sure you copied the unique code correctly. If you see the YouTube video and are finished with your topic, reply or private message, click on "Submit".

Here's the video from the example I've been using:

Hints on Watching a YouTube Video

The video is initially in "Pause" mode. Click on the sideways triangle to start the video. If you want to view the video fullscreen, after the video start playing, move your cursor to the bottom of the video. A bar will show that has buttons for controlling the video. On the far right, click on the icon that looks like an incomplete box. The video will open and fill your entire monitor screen. Be sure to note the instructions that show on how to get out of fullscreen mode. This is different for every browser.

Pinecam now has a bbCode tag pair to show Adobe Flash files. Flash files end with ".swf".

Add the Flash bbCode Tags to Your Post, Private Message, or Signature

While you are composing either a new topic, a reply to a topic, a private message or your signature, place your cursor where you want the Flash file to show and click on the button labeled "Flash". The beginning and ending bbCode Flash tags will appear in the text area. Each tag is delineated by square brackets. For example:

Code:

[flash=][/flash]

Required Information for a Flash file

You need three things to show a Flash file: the width, the height, and the file URL. You enter this information into the Flash bbCode like this:

Code:

[flash=width,height]Flash_File_URL[/flash]

Locating the Flash Information in HTML

Flash files are often shown using an HTML object tag; HTML is not permitted in these forums. Here is a typical way to show a Flash file using HTML:

width: in the initial part of the HTML object tag, take the numbers between the quotes after width=

height: in the initial part of the HTML object tag, take the numbers between the quotes after height=

Flash URL: take all the information between the quotes after value=

Add the Flash Information to the bbCode

After you locate the required Flash file information in your HTML, copy/paste or type the information into the bbCode. For example, using the HTML object code above, here is the filled in Flash bbCode:

Anyone who is logged into the Pinecam forums. Most registered users are shown in blue. Pinecammers with special forum permissions such as administrators or moderators are shown in a color pertaining to their volunteer group.

Guest

A person who is reading the Pinecam forums but has not logged in.

Bot/Spider

A bot or spider or web crawler is an automated program that follows links and harvests data and statistics about websites. This is how search engines like Google and Yahoo find new and updated pages to view. They also do things like count the number of links to a website and determine how popular that website is for ranking. Bot and spiders are shown as gray in the "Who is online" list.

Who is Online

The "Who is Online" list shows different Pinecammers, guests, and bot/spiders who have been active in the last hour depending on what page in the forum you are reading.

Board Index

The "Who is online" displays all Pinecammers, guests, and bots/spiders who have accessed the Pinecam forums anywhere.

Forum Category

"Mountain Concerns" and "Community Agencies" are example of forum categories. If you click on a forum category, all the forums associated with that forum category are listed. Although you might expect a forum category to show who is reading any forum listed, it does not; only the Pinecammers, guests, and bots/spiders who have read that forum category show.

Forum

The "Pinecam Living Room" and "Scanner Updates Hwy/Road Info" are examples of forums. When you are on the forum index page, the "Who is online" shows Pinecammers, guests, and bot/spiders who have been on the forum index page or reading any topic in the forum.

Topic

When you are on a topic page, the "Who is online" shows Pinecammers, guests, and bot/spiders who have either been on the forum index page or read a topic in the forum.

More Information

Registered Users Count

Why does the number of "Registered Users" and number of nicks of registered users not agree? Pinecammers may choose to hide their online presence in the forums and their nicks will not show to other registered users.

Hiding Online Status

You can hide your online status:

Click on "User Control Panel" in the gray menu bar under the Pinecam banner.

Click on "Board Preferences" in the options box on the right.

Click on "No" for "Hide my online status".

Click on "Submit".

This will not take effect until you log out of the Pinecam forums and log back in.

Who Is Doing What

If you click on "Who is online" on any page, a new page will open with a list of Pinecammers and bot/spiders who have been active. A Pinecammer who has chosen to hide his/her online status will not show in this list. You can include guests in the list by clicking on "Display guests". This list shows what page each Pinecammer, bot/spider, and, optionally, guest is reading and will automatically refresh every minute.

The time honored tradition for updating the latest post date on a topic is to add a reply with just the word "Bump". Everybody understood what this meant. But there's a new way to update the latest post date on a topic you started - use the topic bump link.

Topics You Can Bump

You must be the originator of the topic. You cannot bump a topic somebody else started.

When You Can Bump Your Topic

Right now, the interval from when you posted your topic and when you can bump it is 7 days. This may change as the forum administrators get more experience with managing the Pinecam board.

Note, this is a full 7 days, including hours. So if you posted your topic at 6:00 in the morning, you can bump it 7 days later - after 6:00 AM.

How To Bump Your Topic

When your topic is eligible to be bumped, you will see a new link under the "postreply" button. Click on the link "Bump topic". For example, this topic is eligible to be bumped:

What Happens When You Click on the "Bump topic" Link

A line is added to the last reply in the topic with a message when you bumped the topic. This message is added to the last reply regardless of who posted the reply. Your topic now has a last post date and time of when you clicked on the "bump topic" link. The message looks like this:

Your topic appears in the forum topic list just as if you had added a reply with the word "Bump".

If someone adds a reply to a bumped topic, the bumped topic message goes away and the latest post date and time for the topic becomes the date and time from the new reply.

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